Snow days

I know that down in the United States, school is often cancelled because of snow or cold.  Well, that just doesn't happen up here.  Snow is a welcome part of the landscape.  And cold doesn't stop anything, at least down here in Southcentral Alaska.

I think I remember school being called off once when there were 100+mile an hour winter winds for a couple of days in the late 90's.  That was some amazing weather.  And then sometime in the dark part of 2002 there were unbelievably slick roads with zero visibility.  Otherwise, school goes on as scheduled.

A week or two ago, we had a fresh foot of snow up here on the mountain.  It was a warm, heavy and wet snowfall which burdened the trees and pushed them down- effectively closing the trails for a time.  It took me three days just to clear the mile and half of trail down to the community road, and that was not a thorough job... it was only enough to get by.

And this morning we have about 7 inches fresh right now, but its still snowing.  So I know that a good portion of my day is going to be spent with a chainsaw in hand, throwing brush off the trail.  Its going to be a long day full of manual labor, doing what has to be done to provide access for my family to get to the road system.  Yippee!

Again, it will probably take me a few days just to get the basics done, but it will be good to get out in the landscape- postholing through the snow and working my muscles while teaching my toddler about a good work ethic.  Hopefully she'll be up for the adventure today.  I know I am.

And for those of you following the story, Ben didn't make it home yesterday.  He barely made it over the low mountain pass to his Dad's main camp.  So at least they have each other to keep company, and help with camp chores, and lots of food to eat while they wait for the weather to change.

Gotta love the new moon... moon shifts always seem to alter the pattern.  Yeah snow!